Why NYPD officers are unhappy with New York's new marijuana policy (+video)

[UglyGreed]

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Monday that possessing small amounts of marijuana would be a ticketable offense, instead of a felony. Some NYPD officers are bristling at the change and hinting at a work slowdown.

New York — The aggressive street tactics of the New York City Police Department – especially its steady arrests of minorities possessing small amounts of marijuana in high-crime neighborhoods – has been one of the most vexing political issues in the city for nearly a decade.

So when Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton announced Monday that cops on the street would begin scaling back on the number of the city’s low-level felony marijuana arrests, and simply issue tickets with a $100 fine instead, they were hoping at long last to quell the decade-long controversy over the dramatic racial disparities found for such arrests.

But controversy continues to swirl this week. New York City cops, whose low-level pot busts over the past two decades have made the city the marijuana arrest capital of the world, are bristling again at the change in street-level tactics, which also included a dramatic reduction of “stop, question, and frisk” pat downs earlier this year.


And some beat cops are whispering about a work slowdown, The New York Daily News reports, citing police sources



http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2014/1112/Why-NYPD-officers-are-unhappy-with-New-York-s-new-marijuana-policy-video

[Feral Child]

1. K&R n/t

[PeoViejo]

2. It's going to be harder for them to make their quota.

How are they going to get the Monthly quota of slaves for the Prison-Industrial Complex? Hard-Core Felons don't make compliant workers.

[Renew Deal]

4. Is that program in place in NY?

Typically it's the prisons that have that complaint. For the cops it's about money. Less OT.

[99Forever]

3. Fuck the police.

[etherealtruth]

14. !

[Eleanors38]

5. The "arrest capital" ain't in Texas or Florida?

Now, who'd thunk?

And pushing the scorched earth policy of marijuana arrests was the grand poo-bah of prohibitionism hizself:

Michael Bloomberg.

[Kingofalldems]

9. So it's about guns again?

[alcibiades_mystery]

16. ROFL

Only one reason to be here for some: jump in every thread that looks "gun-comment-able" and spread that shit.

If you can get in a shot at NYC, all the better.

[Eleanors38]

23. Re-read #5 & #22. Guns on the tip of your tongue?

[Eleanors38]

22. Guess so since you brought it up.

I was thinking of Bloomberg's fixation on giant sodas, not "guns." Since you broached the subject, what have you to say about "guns?"

[Kingofalldems]

25. I'm in favor of strict gun control.

[Eleanors38]

26. Hijacking? This thread isn't about guns.

[Kingofalldems]

28. You asked me so you freaking hijacked it.

[Eleanors38]

33. Well, somebody first brought up guns. I'm so

confused. I thought this was a Big Gulp thread where everybody got stoned over NYC and Bloomer's late night pumble, but instead gunz rides again. Hi-Yo Silver, and all that.

[mopinko]

6. having the same problem in chicago. pot busts are how you harass people.

they are a tool of intimidation. and they dont want to give up their tools.

[GreatGazoo]

7. and DC. Hard to marginalize millions of people without draconian MJ laws

I was looking at the laws for distilling recently and it struck me how invasive and ridiculous these laws are.

Wall Street banks get to bet against their own investment customers, full de-regulation. Fracking companies don't have to say what is in their fracking frack water. But if you take hard cider (which already has alcohol) and distill it into something stronger on your own property for personal consumption or use in a vehicle (ethanol) you are risking 5 years in prison.

The process of evaporation is more tightly regulated than industries which affect all of us because they feel that the little people need to be oppressed in their own homes.

[Downtown Hound]

11. Hit the nail on the head, you did.

How many times has a cop claimed they smelled marijuana as an excuse to violate somebody's civil rights?

[mopinko]

18. yup.

and even before they changed the law, they stretched the law. knowingly.
my son and a couple of his buddies got cracked for what the cops KNEW was less than the statutory amount. they told me when i showed up at the station- dont worry, they will throw it out in court.
excuse me?
then they kept the kids in jail all night while they "checked their records", which, of course, takes forever because "those records are at 11th and state". like they were dragging through little paper files and dispatching them the whole 10 or so miles by carrier pigeon.

so corrupt. just so corrupt.
the icing on the cake was that the cop behind the desk had responded to a burglary at my house. they caught the dude, coincidentally. but they had no probable cause to detain or search the guy besides the fact that he was brown, and wandering around in the middle of the night. the fact that he had a backpack full of our stuff was just "luck". so, cop had turned himself inside out to try to get us to testify that we had given him a description of the perp, even tho no one actually got a look at him.
they did the little dance they do where you dont testify, the cop does. they got their plea deal.
so, i see same cop, he remembers me, then says- gee, too bad they already filled out the paperwork, or i would just let him go. get it? he is dirty, he knows it, i know it, so, i am in the club.

still regret that i didnt just plunk my ass down in that lobby and sit there till they let them go. i wonder how long that cop could have looked at me sitting there before his shorts bunched up on him.

[Eleanors38]

34. Da W.O.D. is all about culture war and a way of

getting at you. All it was Ever about.

[librechik]

8. we don't have a representative government. We are a police state

The cops will get what they want one way or another, and Blasio and others like him will have to bow down to them. We don't make it out in time. We lost.

[Downtown Hound]

10. And cops wonder why people hate them. n/t

[Trillo]

12. Interesting that "cops" who enforce order on citizens don't want to listen to orders

from their own bosses. They're above the law, and apparently, above being controlled from their superiors. That seems to mean they're a law unto themselves. Judge, Jury, (and sometimes executioner).

If this perception of mine is correct, then some non-police who are not part of the Fraternal Order of Police need to step in and provide the citizens with protection from these local police.

Perhaps NY cops deciding to have a work slowdown is a great idea. Why not make it a full strike, and just walk off the job? Carry your signs around protesting to your hearts' contents, but make sure you leave your badge and gun with the boss when you leave.

NY civilian politicians will have to get some non-police replacements in pronto, in advance of this Police labor walkout Strike.

[sir pball]

13. Errr...AFAIK simple possession has never been a *felony* in NY..

I don't have firsthand experience but I know quite a few people that have been dinged for weed, up to a quarter oz, and none of them got stuck with felony possession charges. Yes, there were arrests and court dates and lawyers and the whole package, but at the end of the day it was only ever a misdemeanor to begin with. Now it's just a summons, same as jumping the turnstile, pissing in the street, or drinking in public. Well, the latter two are $25, but it's the same idea. Pay your bill and six months later everything vanishes.

[gollygee]

15. Am I misunderstanding this?

They're complaining about not being able to harass people over small amounts of marijuana, and not being able to harass people by doing random stop and frisk searches, not because of any concerns about justice or safety, but because they are worried about how much work there will be to do? We can't create crimes or overpunish small crimes, to create work for police officers. What a "tail wags the dog" problem.

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. Much of military and police "work" is make work - a social program masquerading as productive labor

Make no mistake: we're socialist in practice. We just funnel huge amounts of public funds to military and military contractors and police and the like. We could easily get by with a fraction of what we have in both regards, so the overage is just make work, pure socialism, using public funds to stimulate the economy. Rather than do that with roads and bridges and housing, we do it with missiles and deployments and ludicrously excessive policing. And guns. But it's socialism all the way down: government organized to provide capital to keep the economy going, since the actual capitalist economy is an utter failure and insufficient to maintain anything like a society.

[jwirr]

19. Get used to it boys in blue. The mj arrests are coming to an end. You are going to have to learn

to do real criminal investigations.

[LordGlenconner]

20. Dear NYPD: Just do what you are told and shut the fuck up.

[TeamPooka]

21. a police work slow down is what most of us want anyway. Thanks for the "threat" cops. Do it.

[Eleanors38]

35. Ha! Don't throw me into the briar patch!

[RedCappedBandit]

24. NYPD needs to remember they work for the PEOPLE

and the PEOPLE don't appreciate being stopped and harassed everywhere they go for no god damned reason other than racism.

This hurts their ability to engage in broken windows policing? Um.. GOOD.

The issues around the summons system are valid, though, and need to be addressed to promote further equity in NYC drug laws.

[dilby]

27. Oh please God not a work slow down, that means they will only harrass 4 black kids a day

instead of their usual 12.

[Savannahmann]

29. A work slowdown.

Does that mean they will take longer to brutalize or kill people now? If so, this might be a good thing.

[PoliticAverse]

30. Unhappy they will be getting less overtime for arrests? n/t

Last edited Thu Dec 11, 2014, 06:49 PM - Edit history (1)

[DinahMoeHum]

31. Let the pansies go ahead with their threat of a "work slowdown". . .

Who the fuck do they think they are, asking us to beg for their help?

[Lint Head]

32. Hell! Slow down Murder Flunkers!

[Cha]

36. WTH.. whining again! Pot should be legal.. it's stupid law. Deal with it.